


Le Lourd Secret

by Justtochi



Series: AU where everyone suffers at least a bit [1]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Character Study, Child Abuse, Drama, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Mystery, Non-Sexual Slavery, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Swearing, Torture, basically the AU where everyone suffers at least a bit, especially Natsu, no power of friendship thing, references to filler episodes, well things changed in the past too but not everything
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-05-08
Packaged: 2019-05-03 15:35:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14572110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Justtochi/pseuds/Justtochi
Summary: During years, he had built himself a smile, an happy world to protect. During years, he ran away from his past, from the horrors his memory couldn’t handle anymore. During years, he rejected this period of his life, condemning it to oblivion, not to carry its weight on his shoulders. However, everything now fell back on him with violence, and the unfolding of events might break down the happy universe he patiently built…





	Le Lourd Secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natsu wakes up in a familiar yet unfamiliar place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone~! This is my first fanfiction on this site, that was carefully translated in English from French with the wonderful help of my beta-reader [satbiym](https://archiveofourown.org/users/satbiym) ! Thanks again !
> 
> So, basically, Le Lourd Secret takes place after the Daphne Arc (yes, I'm following the anime). Gildarts and Lisanna didn't come back. Don't be surprised if you spot any reference to events of the series (including fillers). I’ll try to keep the characters as In-Character as I can, but it can be kinda hard, so I don’t promise I’ll succeed. Also, they are many OCs, just to warn you guys to leave if you don’t like it.
> 
> Hope you'll like it~!

Water.

It’s the image of water that came first to Natsu’s mind when he woke up. It formed a gigantic and peaceful ocean, surrounding him as far as his eyes could see. The waves on its surface broke on the sand, froth licking at his toes.

In spite of being alone and abandoned on this tiny deserted island, he felt no fear, just an immense sense of peace.

But the sweetness of this vision quickly faded, replaced by a pain that was so abominable that the blood-curdling screams he pulled almost ripped his vocal cords. The pain seemed to pierce him throughout, compressing his stomach and running through his body like an electric current. Further to the inflammation of his entire being, he reared, in the throes of such suffering that the slightest of his breaths was a miracle in itself.

For brief seconds, he became vaguely aware of being surrounded by what seemed like forms separated from him by a thick window at an unreachable distance ; some monosyllables of their words reached his ears, completely deformed, as a bright light blinded him. But the shock was so viceral that it quickly interrupted the course of his thoughts and made him lose consciousness again.

Strange dreams followed one another during his sleep, a flurry of images without hierarchy, which involved the beloved figures of his close friends, hated and blurry faces of his jailers and other enemies of his guild, confused flashes of white silhouettes, stretchers and stings, undefinable smells of products having nothing medical, and ringings of machines.

Then the dreams grew faint, devoured by black holes of exhaustion, which were followed by brief moments of consciousness, before being reborn under the eyelids of the Dragon Slayer. This cycle seemed to last a few hours, while in reality, one week passed by before he reopened his eyes.

The almost total darkness prevented him and his confused senses from confirming his suspicions about the place where he was; this confusion was produced by an unbearable pain that persisted to stay, to bite full force his sore body.

The bitter smell of dried blood burned his nostrils, settling in his pained throat; the stench was so omnipresent that the scent even appeared to emanate from him. His current discomfort urged him to struggle, in spite of the firm impression that a knife was tearing apart the flesh below his ribs at his every movement. It was in vain ; he couldn’t stop this dreadful torture.

Slowly, he waited for all his senses to return, trying to ignore the unstoppable pain eating him alive. Having already used his sense of smell and sight to try to estimate the place of his detention, there were only hearing, touch, taste and memory left to help him.

With the informations he previously gathered, Natsu could already formulate an hypothesis : maybe he was in an hospital, blindfolded ? This theory was strengthened by the faint trace of sanitizer that could be smelled, along with the blood he already recognized. However, the latter was too sickening for his theory to be accurate. Plus, people weren’t restrained in hospitals, as far as he knew, well, except in asylums, but even there, he would at least have had a mattress ! And he wasn’t crazy !

Hearing, as he thought, as well as touch, had the potential to be the key of his understanding of the situation. If he listened carefully, he could hear a vague tinkling sound near him, that accompanied each of his gestures. Furthermore, at wrist level, where the slight noise occured, he felt the iron’s coldness against his skin. Handcuffs ? And thus, chains ? Definitive proof that he was restrained.

Taste wasn’t really useful in his case. There was just the bitterness of his saliva on his tongue, like most mornings, when he woke up after hours without drinking. He couldn’t get anything out of this…

Memory might help. If he searched hard enough within his mind, he might find the unfolding of the events before his capture, and finally find out where he was being held captive.

Short memories from a week ago were the latest he could remember, successfully Magnolia Town after the Dragonoid’s rampage, Fairy Tail mages rebuilding it, Natsu and Gray bickering as usual, and the Fire mage kept the fleeting sensation of having been hit by something. An attack, maybe ? After that, he could pull no more out of his fickle memory.

None of this really helped, in truth… His knowledge of this nightmare could be summed up very briefly : he has been abducted and imprisoned unwillingly, in what appeared to be a scientific complex or another abomination of this kind. As to know who to blame for it, it remained a mystery for now.

Where was he exactly ? What did they want from him ? So many questions he couldn’t answer. And the pain ! It was crushing him, slowly eating away his energy, only to leave him as weak as a newborn, unable to defend himself. There had to be a way out…

Having done enough thinking for the day, the impetuous Dragon Slayer tried to burn the chains that kept his arms crossed above his head, against a wall ; however, the attempt was a failure. Each time he succeeded to light up the slightest flame, it died right away, as if sucked into the metal.

 **“** _Magic sealing handcuffs ?!_ **”** he exclaimed in the dark.

He was surprised by the unusual sound of his voice, which echoed a bit against the cold walls. As if answering his words, a door creaked and light engulfed the room that contained him, blinding him.

The walls, the ceiling and the ground, made of nude concrete, were covered in blood which might have splattered on the nearby partitions and had formed huge puddles on the floor. The sight of such amounts of vital liquid that, dried, browned, made unpleasant shivers of repulsion run up his spinal column. His jaw tensed up violently with outrage, full of indignation at the thought of the unfortunate people whose blood was now covering the place, thirsty for revenge.

If he wasn’t sleeping right now, he surely just had fallen in Hell itself.

Facing him, the unique door and source of light was open to reveal a man masked by the insufficient light ; the backlight was cutting his black silhouette on a bright background and his irises glowed with a cruel and arrogant gleam in the darkness. What did he want ? Conscious that his intentions were anything but kind, Natsu gave a threatening grown at the stranger.

All he wanted was to spit his hatred at the bastard’s face.

However, when facing the prisoner’s hostile behavior, the guy’s mouth widened with a huge beast-like grin. He finally deigned to speak to him, with a mocking tone of voice that was weirdly familiar to the Dragon Slayer. The stranger’s body was twisted by an unhealthy desire, that appeared to itch him.

 _“Is this your way to say “hi” to your superiors, huh ?”_ he laughed, fake amusement plastered on his face, before pinching his chin in a pensive pose. _“Gotta fix this…”_

While he was still faking mirth, a frail, feminine silhouette appeared beside him, carrying a plate full of unknown objects, yet too far from Natsu to identify. Instead, his mind was focused on the new foreign character : she seemed to be around Wendy’s height…

Could this bastard have…

 ** _“_** _Ah, it’s just ya”,_ the dismissive stranger recognized, losing all his enthusiasm when realizing his congener’s presence and goal ; it seemed that he couldn’t care less about her either way. **_“_** _Hurry up, I don’t have all day !”_

He then pushed the youngest forward with a slap in the back, almost making her overthrow her precious load. She found her balance again, right before she could hit the ground, stopping for a second, before walking toward the prisoner again, uncertain and shaking, offering him a closer view of her appearance.

She was a child of around twelve years old, with brown reddish hair that was poorly taken care of : it fell till her shoulders, dirty, scratchy and tangled in huge knots. Her clothing, a grey dress that was so short it could pass as a shirt, had been ripped and sewn back together in several places, barely masking her nascent chest and her private parts. She walked with dirtied naked feet on the trash-dotted ground.

The first thing Natsu noticed, except her extraordinary likeness to Wendy – same brown eyes, same height, same round and childish face ; if their outfits and hair weren’t different, he could have thought he was next to his partner – were the abundant scars that marked her skin, compelling proof of the mistreatment she had undergone.

Judging by the state of her attire, her status might differ from the others’, or maybe these monsters were even crueler than expected, since they were going as far as to abusing their own comrades ! And even in the first case, that was no reason to inflict such damage to a defenseless kid !

Soon enough, she was kneeling next to him, putting her embarrassing loading to her right and then, to the Natsu’s surprise, respectfully bowed to the ground. He didn’t understand. Was she trying to earn forgiveness, or was she considered so insignificant that she was even forced to show respect to prisoners ?

When she showed her face again, he found the answer he was seeking for, as he saw deep desolation, her apology evident in it. She appeared unable to express herself with words, but her facial expressions talked for her.

His attention was suddenly caught by her previous load : on the wooden plate soiled by filth were test tubes, vials full of utterly repulsive liquids, and a syringe with a long needle whose cleanliness could be doubted.

He figured out that the syringe’s content was going to be injected inside of him and, considering the place’s lack of hygiene, it wouldn’t end well, thus, he genuinely started to panic, pulled on his chains and tried to use magic, but nothing worked.

Huge tears ran down the girl’s round cheeks as she shook with ugly sobs, as she took the syringe full of green liquid and emptied it in Natsu’s left arm. Immediately, he froze, as if hit by lightning. He then slowly lost his colors and energy, helplessly lying against the wall to which he was attached.

As the kid was barely done completing her sad task, the stranger, having observed the scene, sneaked up closer while she wasn’t looking. When she was done, he threw her out of the way with a slap, harshly grabbed her arm and sent her hitting the nearest wall.

Not even the slightest whine escaped her lips.

She simply dropped to the floor like a rag doll, almost certainly suffering of some injury, as evidenced by the huge red stain that was slowly spreading on her ragged clothes with every passing second.

As for him, Natsu felt himself slipping into unconsciousness, evading his prison, would it be for a few hours or a few weeks, any freedom was enough. His last thought was for his friends who , he hoped, were safe ; he imprinted their image in his mind with strength, promising to hold on until they’ll be together, in the guild. Until then…

_“See you later, Lisanna.”_


End file.
